No. 1 seeds Bob and Mike Bryan “lost” in the first round of the Heineken Open on Tuesday. As replay confirms, they should have won.
Leading Robin Haase and Andre Begemann 9-8 in the super-tiebeaker, Haase hit a cross-court forehand well wide. Both teams approached the net to shake hands until chair umpire Kader Nouni inexplicably called the shot in.
Haase and Begemann went on to win the next two points and prevail 1-6, 7-6(4), 11-9.
Tennis Channel commentator Robbie Koenig saw the replay of the controversial call and exclaimed, “way out.”
Begemann admitted, “I didn’t want to be the linesman on that one. To be honest, you get some calls every now and then. Today I think the linesman was on our side.”
Evidence:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFbxp4FxMXI]
Full point:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2L7eipidzE]
[polldaddy poll=8580976]
Nouni has made some horrible calls during his career. This one can be added to the list.
Isner-Nalbandian was arguably even worse!
If it was 9-9, then they would have been up 10-9, why would they have been going to the net to shake hands at 10-9 ?
the point was at 9-8. Bryans match point. They “won” 10-8.
Fixed it, thanks.
Now who’s better at their craft, The Bryan Bros, Coen Bros or last (but nor least) Mario Bros?
It is irrelevant whether it was in or out, the Bryan brothers should have sucked it up like everyone else – them included – has had to when calls don’t go their way for the entire history of tennis. The following two points are what cost them the match.
Their subtle self-entitled arrogance when playing early rounds of tournaments came back to bite them here.
not really. it was just a horrendous call.
yes they played a bad last two points and still should have won the match. that is a fair point.
chalking this “loss” up to “self-entitled arrogance when playing early rounds of tournaments” is not
Having been at the tournament to watch practice on Saturday and Sunday the Bryan brothers were barely going through the motions and arsing around during most of their practice sessions. Everyone else seemed to be going at it hard. Maybe that works for them but to say they routinely take early round opponents seriously would be a stretch. They expected to go to Auckland and have a cakewalk – and they didn’t get it regardless of the result. The closeness of the match shows it.
early round had nothing to do with it. they just don’t care about small tournaments in general at this point in their careers (and who can blame them?).
I recommend attending a Bryan Brothers practice at a Grand Slam or Masters 1000. It is incredible.
“It is irrelevant whether it was in or out”
If the ball was called out (as it should have) the match would have been over. They lost when they should have won. How much more relevant could it possibly be?
“Their subtle self-entitled arrogance when playing early rounds of tournaments came back to bite them here.”
With your keen insight you should be coaching them. Their attitude in the early rounds has clearly impaired their performance throughout their career. Poor guys can’t win a tournament, right?
yep. The most relevant in/out call of the entire season so far!
there are 9 votes for “in” LOL
Whether it was in or out is moot in my opinion.
Point should be surrendered to your opponent once your argument includes saying Dude twice.
That said, Nouni has always been inept to put it mildly.
A truly horrible call, and It’s beyond me how anyone can think it irrelevant. It was at match point…..irrelevance is completely contradictory to the definition of that situation. Yes, ideally you want them to put it to one side, refocus and play two great points to win all over again. But, as someone who plays a lot of tennis matches, I can tell you first hand just how difficult it is to put those kind of situations completely out of your mind.